(a) Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a thin film transistor array panel and a manufacturing method thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is currently one of the most commonly used flat panel displays. The LCD includes two substrates, each with electrodes formed thereon, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two substrates. In the LCD, a voltage is applied to the electrodes to align liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer to thereby regulate the transmittance of polarized light passing through the liquid crystal layer.
Among the LCD families, an LCD having a structure in which field generating electrodes are respectively formed on two display panels is widely used. Of the two display panels, a plurality of pixel electrodes and thin film transistors are arranged in a matrix format on a first display panel (hereinafter referred to as “a thin film transistor array panel”), color filters of red, green, and blue are formed on the second display panel, and one common electrode covers the entire surface of the second display panel (hereinafter referred to as “a common electrode panel”).
Since the pixel electrodes and the corresponding color filters are formed on different display panels, however, it is difficult to precisely align each pixel electrode with each color filter, so an alignment error may occur.
A color filter-on-array (CoA) structure, in which the color filter and the pixel electrode are formed on the same display panel has been proposed. In addition to the color filter, a light blocking member is generally formed on the same display panel as the pixel electrode in this structure.
When this CoA structure is employed, however, because of the alignment error between the color filter and the light blocking member, the color filter or the light blocking member may be higher or lower than the specified height. Because of the height difference between the color filter and the light blocking member, a cell path length of the liquid crystal display may not be constant, possibly causing irregular movement of the liquid crystal molecules, such that the image quality may decline.
Also, when forming a plurality of thin films on one display panel, a plurality of photolithography processes using a plurality of photomasks are required. This drives up manufacturing costs and complicates the manufacturing process.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention. It may therefore contain information that does not form prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.